Developers report great results from integrating wallet functions into Passbook. But this should encourage Apple and Google to focus OS development on user-level convenience and simplicity in a cluttered app universe.

A survey of Total Beauty Media's users suggests that men rely heavily on devices to shortcut the torture of holiday shopping. For this dad, shopping for his daughter via iPhone is like being a waiter taking a dinner order.

If mobile carriers are going to leverage mobile usage data for targeted offers, then they should be more explicit about the real exchange of value and start treating consumers the way they do marketers.

Recent changes in iOS have helped grow the market for podcasts. This should remind us just how compelling voice can be as media and marketing -- especially on a device that was built to carry conversation, not Web sites.